Deus Ex Machina
by Agas Spenjahgra VII
Summary: AV3: The Darkthrop Prophecy slight AU. CONTAINS SPOILERS.   Wary demons take action when a human girl and her suspicious companions are found roaming about with unclear intentions.
1. Chapter 1: The Spy Sees

A plot bunny that has been bugging me for some time. You know I'm a daeva fantard and you cannot mention demons in the context of Aveyond and not make me think daevas. Now that we actually get a canon Demon Realm in Aveyond... Plot bunnies attacketh!

I only have a very VERY vague idea of where this is going. No promises.

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**Chapter****1**

Tyberius knew that something is amiss the moment he saw the three human girls enter his shack. He was certain because he has never seen them before and he knew all of the human residing in the Demon Realm. This could only mean that the portal to the human world has been opened again. He made a show of looking through his cupboard, pretending to not notice their presence, as he watched the girls out of the corner of his eye.

As they stepped closer, he realized that only one of them was human. The other two...

_Spirit__ manifestation,_ he thought, narrowing his eyes, _And__ such__ strong__ ones __too._

He had never seen anything like that before. Normally a spirit manifestation would still be somewhat translucent. These two girls would have passed for regular human beings had it not been for the unearthly blue glow surrounding them and their pale blue eyes, tell-tale signs that they were not beings of the world.

The human was looking around his shack, looking both nervous and interested. The black-haired spirit was tapping her foot impatiently, her arms crossed, and grumbling something about "wasting time" while the white-haired spirit patted her shoulder placatingly.

"May I help you?" he finally asked them.

The human jumped, and for a brief moment fear flashed across her face before being replace by a look of fierce determination.

"I have a sick friend who needs some medicine," she said, "Do you have anything I can give him?"

Tyberius noted with amusement that although she tried to act calm, her voice still trembled slightly.

"I'm afraid I ran out of a very important ingredient," he told her. After a brief pause, he added, "I need some wyrd vegetable. Why don't you find some for me and I'll let you have the remedy for free?"

"Sure," the human said, "Where can I find one?"

"They grow wild in the wilderness and thrive in extreme heat."

"_Very_ informative," the black-haired spirit said snidely, earning her a glare from the white-haired spirit.

"Nox, don't be rude."

"Cut it out, you two!" the human said exasperatedly. She momentarily turned back to him to say "We'll be back soon," before stalking out the door, the two spirits following her.

_Well,__ that__ was__ interesting,_ Tyberius thought, once the girls were out of sight. _Now__ to __report __this __to __the __master._

The inhabitants of Sheian Lyr may only know him as an apothecary, but he was also there as a lookout. One could almost say that he was a spy. Sheian Lyr was the closest village to the place where the demon realm connects to the human world. Most, if not all humans who pass through the portal ended up in that village one way or another, and it was his job to report any activity pertaining to the human world to his master.

He had been lying when he said that he ran out of an important ingredient for the remedy. The wyrd vegetable was only an optional sweetening ingredient. In fact, he actually still had a few bottles of the remedy in his cupboard. He even purposely refrained from telling them where the exact place to find the wyrd vegetables is. He needed to keep them busy – and most importantly away from him – while he reported the situation to his master. He didn't know whether or not his master was busy at the moment and he needed to make sure there was enough time for his master to respond before the girls return. He had noted the resemblance between the three and it was entirely possible that the human was the one who conjured up the spirits. Were that the case, it meant that the human was a very powerful sorcerer and she needed to be watched.

Tyberius reached into a hidden pocket in his cloak and pulled out a thin metallic box, a communication device his master had given him.

"New human girl sighted in Sheian Lyr, accompanied by two very strong spirit manifestations," he spoke into the box. "The spirit manifestations resembled the girl, except one had white hair while the other was black-haired like the girl. Both spirit manifestations look almost fully human. The girl might be a very powerful sorcerer."

After he had finished speaking, he tapped the box once. The metallic thing glowed and he knew that his report had been sent. He never understood what exactly the object was or how it worked and his master never explained it to him. Frankly, he didn't really care about it anyway. All he needed to know was how to operate the box and that was enough for him.

Not too long after, the box pulsed and glowed, and then he heard his master voice speak. His reply was simply, "I will look into the matter."

He stared at the box briefly, the returned it into his pocket with a shrug. Since his master had no new orders for him, he supposed he should find something to do while he waited for the girls to return.

He was doing his 7839th single-handed handstand when he heard footsteps outside his door. He hurriedly stood back up and straightened his appearance just as the human girl and her spirit companions walked in. They now had a darkling with them. He choked back a laugh upon seeing their disheveled appearance. They must have gotten into a scuffle or two with the monsters lurking in the area.

"I've brought the wyrd vegetable you requested," the human said wearily, handing him the pale pink plant, "Can you make me a remedy for my friend?"

"Excellent", he said, grinning. Hopefully they will think that he was just glad to get hold of the "important ingredient", not because he was laughing at them.

He dumped the vegetable into his mixing pot. Earlier, he had poured a flask of the remedy inside the pot. The remedy was boiling by the time the girls returned, making it look like he had been brewing the potion for quite some time.

As he stirred the pot, something occurred to him. The human had said something about a friend needing the remedy. He was sure that they haven't been around long enough to make new friends. Does that mean that there was another human with them?

_Oh__ well,__ it__ wouldn't__ hurt __to__ try __and __get__ some__ information __out__ of__ them._

"Do you know how your friend got sick?" he asked casually, "I haven't had anyone ask for a remedy in a very long time."

The white-haired spirit answered him, "Well, he wasn't exactly a friend, he was just somebody we met here. He asked for our help so we agreed to help him. He was already sick when we saw him."

Tyberius smirked. They were falling for his bait. Good.

"I don't think I have seen you three before," he spoke again, "Are you new here?"

The spirits and the human looked at each other awkwardly and said nothing – all the more reason for him to be suspicious. The darkling looked like it was about to say something, but the human ordered it to be quiet and it obeyed. He raised an eyebrow. The human could control darklings too? He would have to tell the master about this too later.

Finally the black-haired spirit answered, "We're just passing through."

"Oh."

It was obvious that he wouldn't get anything more out of them; the black-haired spirit's I-dare-you-to-ask-more-questions glare was a sure sign of that. He wordlessly "finished" the remedy, poured it back into its flask, and handed the flask to the human.

"Hey, I asked for remedy, not poison!" the human protested, but the white-haired spirit shushed her.

"Come, Mel, we should leave before you anger him," he heard her tell the human, and he had to roll his eyes at that. Did he really look like he gets angry _that_ easily? Some of his brothers maybe (namely Derez), but not him.

The spirit briefly explained to the human about how the demon realm works differently than the mortal world (obviously), then the four girls (should he count the darkling as a "girl" too?) left his shack.

_So_, he thought, _Judging__ by__ what__ the__ black-haired__ spirit__ said__ about__ them__ "__just__ passing __through__"__,__ it__ is__ safe__ to __assume __that __they__ are not going to be around for long__._

All the more reason to report the information as soon as possible. Who knows where they would be headed next? The white-haired spirit had also let slip that the black-haired spirit was named "Nox" and the human named "Mel". He didn't know if those names held any importance at all, but he the master would surely appreciate any detail he could offer.

Tyberius reached into his cloak and pulled out the metallic box again.

* * *

I didn't think this was gonna be this long. Long for my standard anyway. I don't usually write anything longer than 2 pages unless it's college paper.

Surprise surprise, I actually wrote from the POV of someone not at all important. Hopefully I will be able to explain things in the future chapters.

Cheers!


	2. Chapter 2: The Master Wonders

Well, I had chapter 2 half-done a few months ago, but then life happens and I revamped the daevas and in turn I had to tinker with the Demon Realm system too and etc etc etc... I had to redo chapter 2 entirely, but fortunately chapter 1 didn't have anything that changed much between then and now, so I didn't have to do anything about it. Yay!

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Chapter2

Maybe, just maybe, being _too_ different was not a very good idea after all. This Nanghaithya realized when his _ruzisam_ suddenly decided to sit on his head and try to build a nest with his hair. He would not have minded that much if the creature had not been in the middle of delivering a message that may be very important. He supposed the other daevas did have a good reason to prefer to use gargoyles as messengers.

He lifted the creature from his head, taking care to disentangle his hair from the spikes that covered its body. The _ruzisam _tried to wriggle free, flailing its tiny arms in protest, but immediately stopped when Nanghaithya glared at it. He snapped his fingers once and the creature's arms and legs slid inside its body, giving it the appearance of a spiky, translucent blob of goo. He placed the creature on his desk. It timidly slithered into a small golden tray and, the moment it settled on the tray, promptly went rigid and a number of coloured balls grew out of its spikes. A bright green ball then started glowing.

Tyberius again. Nanghaithya glanced at the hourglass next to the _ruzisam_'s tray. It had been a few hours since Tyberius' last contact. That was ample time for anyone to wreak havoc. Hopefully his spy was contacting him because he had more information, not to report a disaster.

He tapped the spiky creature and Tyberius' voice began speaking.

"The human girl is apparently also controlling a darkling. It is travelling with them now, but I didn't see it earlier. I do not know if it means anything to you, master, but the human is named 'Mel', and one of the spirits is named 'Nox'. They also mentioned that they were only 'passing through'. I assumed they meant they were trying to return to the human world."

The moment the message was over, the _ruzisam _immediately grew back its arms and legs and attempted to run away. Before it could manage to do so, Nanghaithya grabbed it at stuffed the creature into his drawer. It made awful squeaky noises and banged on the drawer, but Nanghaithya ignored it, focusing instead on the news Tyberius had brought. The names didn't mean a thing to him, but the mention of a darkling being involved caught his attention.

For one, Darklings were not native to the lands of Ashth Pereth. They came from the Underworld of the human realm. While he had no idea how many darklings were in the lands, other than the bunch he himself brought a long time ago, the chances of the human encountering one was very small. He began to wonder if the human had been around for much longer than Tyberius thought.

Then there was the matter of the spirit manifestations. Spirit manifestation and astral projection are very similar. They both require the being to project their soul outside their bodies. The difference is that astral projections cannot interact with their surroundings, while spirit manifestations could.

Astral projections could see, but could not be seen; they could hear, but could not be heard; in essence it would be as if they were not even there at all. A spirit manifestation functions almost like teleporting oneself somewhere else, except that the spirit body would always have an ethereal glow surrounding it. However, the visibility of manifestations depended on one's magic strength and concentration. Weaker manifestation would look somewhat transparent like a ghost and the very weak ones could not be seen at all. If a spirit manifestation could look fully human, then it meant that the one performing the technique had very powerful magic.

Nanghaithya sighed, picking up the opened book from his desk and flipping through it aimlessly. There were so many things about the situation that puzzled him. Why did this human have spirit manifestations as companions? If she could transport herself into Ashth Pereth, then shouldn't she be able to transport her companions physically as well? After all, in spirit form one would become far less powerful. Wouldn't it be very counter-productive to travel to Ashth Peret_h_ in spirit form, especially for humans? And what about the darkling? Where did it come from and why did it obey the human willingly? Darklings do not like to follow orders, especially from humans. If the girl had somehow enchanted the darkling into submission, then how strong _was_her magic? Based on his own experience, brainwashing a darkling requires performing a very complex spell. Unless there was another way that he did not know of.

Rashnu should know better about darklings than him. He decided to give his cousin a call. Normally he would have dropped for a visit himself, but he didn't feel like travelling at that moment.

Nanghaithya placed the book back on his desk and picked up the black _ruzisam_ that hung from a chain on his belt. Rashnu had given it to him sometime before the gates between Ashth Pereth and the human realm was closed. He had not used it for a very long time, preferring to visit in person once the gate was accessible again.

Rashnu's _ruzisam_ was a simple, round, spiky blob. It didn't move much, unlike his own, and for the most part looked like an inanimate object. Nanghaithya pressed the silver crescent on the creature's surface and the design turned into a bright yellow grinning face that reminded him of the pumpkin lanterns in Ghed'ahre. The face glowed and formed a yellowish haze above the _ruzisam_. Moments later, Rashnu's face appeared in the haze.

"Nanghaithya," Rashnu greeted, "I would ask 'how are you', but I just saw you this morning, so I don't think I'd bother."

"The same to you," Nanghaithya replied, eyeing the projection with jealousy. He still haven't figured out how to do the visual projection yet, and he was itching to find out how.

Rashnu chuckled. "Now let's get to business, shall we?" he said with a smile. "What do I owe this call to? I'm certain it wasn't because you miss me."

"Ah, yes. I wanted to ask about darklings."

"What about them?"

"I just received a report that a human girl who had a pet darkling was wandering around a village in the Akatash region. What I want to know is whether or not there a method to control darklings exist, other than directly brainwashing them with a spell."

Rashnu raised an eyebrow. "That is news. Darklings are very independent and strong-willed. They're not the kind of beings that are easily tamed and taken as pets. For one to willingly serve a human... There must be a strong motive behind it. That, or the darkling has been brainwashed."

"My thoughts exactly."

"I can go to Underfall and ask if anything had happened. Is there anything I should know about?"

Nanghaithya thought for a moment, then replied, "There were also two spirit manifestations following the human. Maybe you could look into that as well." He paused, then added, "The human was named 'Mel' and one of the spirits was named 'Nox'. Does that mean anything to you?"

Rashnu shook his head. "No, but Nox sounded like a name that a witch or a warlock would have. You could tell the minions you have in the witches' and warlocks' community investigate."

"Good idea."

"If there's nothing else, then I shall take my leave."

Nanghaithya nodded, and Rashnu's projection vanished. Moments later, the yellow haze faded and the smiling face turned back into the silver crescent.

_Well, __that__ was__ helpful,_Nanghaithya thought, _Sort of_.

He had more leads, but still no answers. He sat down on his chair and glanced at the book on his desk. It was a book about spirits and souls he had taken from the human realm. Before Tyberius called, he had been trying, and failed, to find information about spirit manifestation in it. There was something about astral projection, but nothing about spirit manifestation.

Granted, the book was old, but surely a spiritual manifestation isn't _that _new of a development. The first time he witnessed a spiritual manifestation was the one Agas performed not too long after the kid was reinstated as daeva. It was a quite recent occurrence, but that was only because nobody knew such a thing could be done. One was required to have a soul to perform a spirit manifestation and demons generally have none. Agas had been the only one among the daevas to have the closest semblance of a soul and he did it purely by accident. If humans know about astral projections, shouldn't they know about the spirit manifestation too?

As Nanghaithya replaced the book on his bookshelf, a thought struck his mind. Maybe those spirits were not manifestations after all. Maybe they were souls forcibly removed from their bodies by a special method. Something like a spirit manifestation, but done by someone else. He'll have to go ask Zarich about that later. As a _Felqennaq _"Ripper", Zarich should know a thing or two about souls. Before that, he needed to tell his spies to investigate the human and the spirits. He'd have to get physical descriptions from Tyberius first, though.

Returning to his desk, Nanghaithya opened his drawer and took out the still-squeaking _ruzisam_. He placed the creature on the golden tray, where it once again became stiff and sprouted colourful balls. He pressed the bright green ball and began speaking.

* * *

Welcome back daevas. So. A couple of notes here.

1. Ashth Pereth is Demon Realm. I don't believe the demons would call their own place Demon Realm. Sheian Lyr is a special case because in my headcanon it's inhabitants are not-quite-demons.  
2. Hello Rashnu. In my whacky world Rashnu is a half-demon and Nanghaithya's cousin. They are bad influence to each other.  
3. The _ruzisam_ are pretty much telephones, if you noticed. Or rather, Nanghaithya's is a walkie-talkie and Rashnu's is a video phone/skype/webcam.  
4. The coloured balls on Nanghaithya's _ruzisam_ are "speed dial buttons" to his minions.  
5. Yay infodump aplenty?  
6. Nanghaithya's "minions" are all those Nanghaithya-clone warlocks. Derez the warlock from AV1 is one of them.  
7. In case I wasn't clear, _Felqennaq_ is the tribe/village/place/species Zarich is from and he is a "Ripper". Don't worry what that is for now. It's not important to the story.  
8. Yes, Agas has a not-quite-a-soul in him. It's not exactly like human soul, but enough to make him unable to wear the Soul Pendant without being harmed.  
9. Nanghaithya came out as more serious business than I wanted him to be, but then again, this is kinda a serious situation, so...  
10. Akatash is the district where Sheian Lyr is. Lengthy backstory, yadda yadda yadda, don't worry too much about it.

This story ends up being longer than I originally meant it to be. At first I just wanted Nanghaithya to call security *coughagascough* after receiving the report, but Nanghaithya is too much of a scientist to not want to know what's up with the darkling (Yemite) and spirits (Uma and Nox). So now Rashnu and Zarich are involved.


End file.
